Messages

141

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe controls

« on: October 23, 2007, 10:27:43 AM »

How big is your lathe?

142

Brains Development / Re: Brain not affected by oem led???

« on: October 19, 2007, 05:49:35 PM »

I wonder if the ports & pins configurations, inputs & outputs enabled and port settings can be affecting the inputs and outputs you are manipulating with your brains.

Arnie

143

General Mach Discussion / modbus serial plugin enabled Scratching my brain over Brains?

« on: October 19, 2007, 05:44:38 PM »

Well I am stuck and not sure where to go. 

I have a DL06 plc talking to Mach3 via serial modbus.  It seems to work just fine with a few exceptions in Turn, but when I enable serial modbus plugin, I can't seem to toggle outputs on the plc anymore or see plc inputs change.   Do I need a brain for this?  Not a brain brain but a Brain program, that reads the modbus address and ports that over to the input,  along with a brain output that takes a mach3 output and ports that over to the modbus via the brain.

Arnie

144

General Mach Discussion / Re: A simple G question. How to move to x=4,y=0 when current position is random

« on: October 19, 2007, 05:37:04 PM »

It could get ugly indeed.

For the most part, in my limited experience, most moves are done in an absolute mode.  The incremental mode is used mostly in subroutines (not sure if thats what they are called)
where you are machining multiple identical parts out of one piece,  the main program takes you to a start point or offset and then you go into a subroutine that uses the incremetal mode and machines out the part, then returns you to the main program in the absolute mode moves you to the next point and loops back to the subroutine to do it all over again.

145

General Mach Discussion / Re: A simple G question. How to move to x=4,y=0 when current position is random

« on: October 19, 2007, 03:42:44 PM »

Dave,

g90 puts you in the absolute mode
g91 puts you in the incremental mode

so g0 x4 can be incremental or absolute depending which mode you are in.

g90
g0 x4 y0
will put you at the absolute position of x4 y0

Arnie

146

General Mach Discussion / Re: video window camera- optical positioning/measuring -

« on: October 19, 2007, 09:50:57 AM »

Jim,

I did a little test, the first one will focus down to 3 mm from the target.  This is with the front cap removed and adjusting the focus ring outward.

Arnie

147

General Mach Discussion / Re: video window camera- optical positioning/measuring -

« on: October 19, 2007, 09:41:42 AM »

Jim,

The first one with the clip on the back, I know this one, I have one sitting on the desk here in front of me.  I too thought it would work good, but have since abandoned trying to convert it.
It has a ball swivel on the back of the camera that is fairly stiff but it can be easily moved.  That part clips into a large clip/stand the clip opens up to clamp on something in the 1/2 to 3/4" range.  I was able to pop the front chrome piece off the face but thats as far as I went to disassemble it, it looks like the rest of it will pop apart but not sure if it will damage the case doing that.  The swivel ball would have been good if there was a way to firmly secure it or fine adjust it, in the end it just looked a little too cheap in the long run.  It will focus very close, and would be good if you built a full enclosure for it.

The second one might be ok, I don't know enough about it to comment though.

Arnie

148

General Mach Discussion / Re: video window camera- optical positioning/measuring -

« on: October 18, 2007, 10:32:34 AM »

Jim,

It sounds good, I haven't acutally seen this camera, if you post a picture or link I can go look at it. 

The main thing I would be concerned about is the ability to focus up close.  If you take a look at the pictures in this post and the bargain basement of the resolutions you get when focusing up real close, 1/8 to 1/4" that is the key.  The actual pixel count doesn't make as much difference as the focus distance, you can have a great hi res picture, but if you can's get a close up look at the part it is not much use for that real close tolerance positioning.

The other consideration that is equally important is the suitability or difficulty to attach a shaft to it with the ability to adjust it for center.

Arnie

149

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: emco 5pc spindle motor help

« on: October 15, 2007, 01:56:07 PM »

Jim,

It is the digital machinist, a publication by the same folks that do the home shop machinist and machinist workshop,  villagepress.com

Arnie

150

General Mach Discussion / Re: Question for Brian re new Video Window

« on: October 15, 2007, 01:50:42 PM »

Bob,

Thanks for the tip on the window being backwards.  I found in my camera software where I can flip the image.  It flips it for a mirror image (text is bassackwards) , then when I go to Mach's video window it flips it again so everything looks normal in the Mach3 screen.

Arnie